One hides another.

Each truth hides a deeper truth.

My motive for keeping my yard tidy? To fit in with my neighbors.

My motive for fitting in with my neighbors? Fear of being shut out.

My motive in avoiding exclusion? Perhaps I fear being alone with self.

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The sun has risen, and the chores call. Perhaps I can tend to my lawn and grant myself grace for the layers of truth that simple act covers over.

Perhaps the truth I hide from myself is that I am no different from my fellows.

Perhaps this hidden truth is a gift.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I become fully honest with myself?

Reading:

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates

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“We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.” — Anaïs Nin

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“Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part you shall make me to know wisdom.” — Psalm 51:6 (KJV)

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You fill all things. (Sunday Letter)

I have been thinking about omnipresence.

You are so many places, Lord. You are all things. I look across the valley and see you in the mist below, in the mountains across the way. You are the peak that looms above my village. You are the clouds and storms that pass over.

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Even here, within these walls, you are present. In the quiet ticking of the clock. In the warmth of the small lamp by my side. In the faint scent of the garden drifting through the open window. You are here in my breath, in the pulse that keeps time beneath my skin.

Everywhere, you fill the space that thought cannot.

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How strange that I still search for you as if you were far off, when you saturate the air around me. You are both the silence and the sound within it.

Be with me, Lord—not because you ever leave, but because I so often forget.

Let me feel your nearness in all things.

What could ever be apart from you?

– from the mountain

Consider:

Devotional question?

Reading:

“God is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” — Book of the 24 Philosophers

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“Greatly ought we to rejoice that God dwells in our soul; and more greatly ought we to rejoice that our soul dwells in God.” — Julian of Norwich

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“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” — Psalm 139:7 (KJV)

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Its own work of art.

I leave behind a book of sketches in my room, as I walk out into the gathering dawn.

What will the day bring? Work, greetings, market, a walk, worship. Perhaps surprise, perhaps not.

❖

Let my walking through the day be my highest art, Lord. If I create beauty, let it rest in the blanket of moments left by my actions of the day.

Let me craft a full day, Lord.

– from the mountain

Consider:

How best can I seek a full life today?

Reading:

“The day is a canvas, and the acts of every man are the strokes with which he paints it.” — Dag Hammarskjöld

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“What you do today is important, because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.” — Early 20th century wall motto

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“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” — Psalm 118:24 (KJV)

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Am I close enough?

I try to draw near to you, Lord, and yet always fall short. I would wish ever to be nearer.

Am I close enough? I wonder and wonder.

How could I know, that all you asked was that I try — and you would draw as near to me as I could bear?

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Such a sweet gift of grace, the smallest effort rewarded tenfold.

Draw near to me, Lord!

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I trust that you will draw near to me, if I draw near to you?

Reading:

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” — Lao Tzu

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“You do not have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

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“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” — James 4:8 (KJV)

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